SNØMASKN (chimera) was commissioned by the Acoustic Atlas as one of the 9 tracks of Echoes and Reflections.

More info & lsten to the full album here:
telepathicbeing.bandcamp.com/album/echoes-and-reflections

This commission was a special one as it included both a space (an IR) for the Acoustic Atlas itself, and a music piece to be heard in that space, reflecting on the mythology of the Oread, a nymph, Echo.

This track is in binaural format (3D audio): listen with headphones only!

For a full interactive and ambisonics experience head to acousticatlas.de

----
ABOUT THE PIECE - Snømaskn (chimera)

//Chimera through time-space reflection
I had this idea to make something “impossible” - or unreal, as a “chimera”: an impossible appearance of sources originating in an electric or electronic process, in an acoustic atmosphere where they do not belong. The resulting space is an attempt to connect several different acoustic worlds through immaterial underground paths.
To enter the imaginary space, listen to the piece: it starts with electronic drops, like morse signals from an unreachable space. The space builds up as the narrative develops around an interview with the snow maintenance company for railways, from processed news prep archive tapes from the 60s, that I process time-wise - thinking of “mirroring” as a timely process, time running back and forth, continuing into another subject about future space stations.

“Mais tu ne peux pas l’entendre,
la chimère aux yeux de rêve/de verre.
Et où disparaît la route
Quand la nuit tombe sur nous ?”
(But you can’t hear it, you’re the chimera with eyes made of glass/of dreams.
And where does the road disappear, when the night falls over/upon us?)
(Cikatri$, Quand la Nuit Tombe sur Nous)

----
ABOUT THE SPACE

A rare type of marble has been discovered beside a regular mine in the region of XXX in Northern Scandinavia, off a faraway drift deep underneath the surface. An underground excavation is secretly started, that follows the extracting habits of marble quarries from the Alentejo region in Portugal - think, building a pink marble cathedral underground as a monolith. This works fine for a while, as the added dimension of a “roof” do not seem make the whole structure weaker than the usual open-sky excavation site. When the marble runs out, the idea of installing an experimental nuclear reactor in the created space is investigated, as an underground location was believed safer at the time (in the end this reactor will be installed at R1 underneath Stockholm instead). Unfortunately, as years go by the mining ground in the region becomes unstable. The tunnel connecting the “cathedral” to the regular “official” mine is walled off and the space condemned, any trace of information such as exact location is discarded. All remaining equipment is re-labeled as belonging to a company in charge of snow maintenance in a distant city. Since the exact location of the secret marble excavation cannot be displayed, we are using as GPS coordinates a barycenter of all mines in production in the area in the late 60s, when the unusual snow maintenance equipment mentioned above was reported.